Beyond the Front End: Arthur Azizov's Deep Dive into FinTech Software Development

<p>Maintaining
a competitive edge in retail trading requires overcoming the difficulties of
in-house software development, according to Arthur Azizov, the CEO and Founder
of B2Broker Group. During a recent Finance Magnates London Summit 2023
(FMLS:23) panel entitled "Challenges of Inhouse Software Development in
FinTech", Azizov shared his perspective on sparking creativity and pushing
progress in the fintech sector.</p><p>The Challenges of In-House
Software Development in Fintech</p><p>Azizov
emphasized the difference in perception of software products between clients
and engineers. "From a client's perspective, the focus is on the front
end. The buttons, coloring, updates," he stated. However, engineers see
"many different components that need to be updated, synchronized, and
communicated among themselves." </p><p>From an engineering standpoint, there are many interconnected components powering that front end, all of which need updating, synchronizing, and communicating. This dichotomy highlighted the complexity behind a seemingly
straightforward user interface.</p><p>The Importance of
Microservices</p><p>According
to <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/thought-leadership/b2broker-making-presence-felt-at-fmls23/" target="_blank" rel="follow">the CEO of B2Broker Group</a>, a key way to manage software complexity is
through a microservices architecture.</p><p>"As
long as you keep every single job service, let's go it this way. Dedicated
service. In particular, you can keep this code, it can be encapsulated into the
Docker container that will be independently running on your cloud based
technology."</p><p>This allows
individual components to be updated, replaced or removed without needing to
re-release the entire product. Azizov gave the example of his company's <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/thought-leadership/b2core-new-product-update-unwrap-the-new-features/" target="_blank" rel="follow">B2Core
product</a> now in its third back-end generation and fourth front-end generation.</p><p>Microservices
enable more targeted improvements by developers across disciplines like
front-end, back-end, testing and DevOps. Faster deployment of updates is also
facilitated. However, Azizov cautioned against the overuse of microservices,
particularly in certain technologies like trading platforms. He noted the
potential drawbacks of excessive component separation, such as increased
latency and decreased speed, advocating for a balanced approach.</p><p>You can find rest of the article below the video:</p><p>The Need for Advanced
Testing</p><p>With
software components increasingly decoupled, robust testing methodologies also become
mandatory. He outlined a testing pipeline spanning from unit tests written by
developers to integration tests, regression tests, and test <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/a/automation/">automation</a> for API
endpoints and front-end code. While time-consuming to set up, the end goal is
full automation from code commit to pipeline deployment.</p><p>Manual
testing still has a role too, according to Azizov, with specialized QA
engineers trying to account for all possible real-world scenarios.</p><p>The Cloud and
Infrastructure Considerations</p><p>Azizov also
touched on infrastructure choices and their impact. While Kubernetes (open-source
platforms for managing workloads) helps applications scale, he admitted, "too
get up and running Kubernetes, it's a very, very complex job."</p><p>Hence, the
appeal of managed Kubernetes from major <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/c/cloud/">cloud</a> providers like AWS, Google Cloud,
and Microsoft Azure: "They manage Kubernetes. Basically, Amazon's already
behind the scenes. They already integrated Kubernetes within their cloud
infrastructure."</p><p>Though this
cloud infrastructure costs more upfront, it can save much time and money down
the line. Monitoring tools like Grafana are also now vital for visibility into
system bottlenecks.</p><p>Additional Challenges:
Hiring and More</p><p>Azizov
concluded by listing other pain points like hiring enough sufficiently skilled
developers, keeping teams aligned with Agile methodologies, transitioning
design to reusable component libraries, and more.</p><p>The CEO of B2Broker touched on the challenges of hiring skilled personnel in a
market flooded with junior developers. "Only 5% to 10% are really skilled
enough to get the job done," he estimated, emphasizing the need for robust
hiring pipelines and ongoing training.</p><p>Concluding
his talk, Azizov briefly mentioned B2Broker's upcoming projects, including a
digital banking platform and crypto processing services. In summary, Azizov
painted a picture of fintech software development as a complex balancing act.
But, he believes the latest technologies and methodologies can help teams
better meet the challenge.</p><p>Participate in Our Fraud Survey: Your Opinion Matters!</p><p>We invite you to participate in our joint survey conducted by FXStreet and Finance Magnates Group, which explores prevalent online financial fraud types, platforms used for fraudulent activities, effectiveness of countermeasures, and challenges faced by companies in tackling such fraud. Your valuable insights will help inform future strategies and resource allocation in combating financial fraud.</p><p><a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/social-media-scams-help-shape-the-fight-with-your-2024-survey-participation/" target="_blank">Social Media Scams: Help Shape the Fight with Your 2024 Survey Participation</a></p>

This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.